Drone Light Show (Part 2) - Hardware

Yesterday, I got to unbox the first drone hardware; since my last post, I picked out a build based on Stan Humphries's video "How I Build Custom Light Show Drones..." the build consists of mostly HolyBro components, while not being cheap they offered a reliable and well-documented parts compared to the competitors or parts I would have gotten cheaper off AliExpress.

The setup for the first drone is more expensive than what you would want for an entire fleet of 100+ drones. However, it is a good testing platform for getting hands-on with the Skybrush suite.

Black round F9P GPS module with arrow, RTK FIX and 3D FIX lights, switch, cable, and inset of GHR 1.25mm 10-pin connector

H-RTK F9P GNSS Series

Pixhawk 6c

S500 quadcopter frame with four motors, black arms, foam-padded landing legs and loose wires, beside four black propellers

S500 V2 Kits

Blue Turnigy Heavy Duty 5000mAh 4-cell 14.8V LiPo battery with red wires, yellow XT90 connector and white balance plug

5000mAh 4S 60C Lipo

Small black Wi-Fi module circuit board linked by a thin coaxial cable to a black rubber antenna with a gold connector

Wifi Module (3DR)

*Many more components contributed to the build, but I won't include the full list here. Once I've got a better idea of a scalable drone build, I'll share the BoM.

This was my first time unboxing, so I couldn't fully assemble every component, but it gave me a good idea of what would be required for the building process. It also shocked me how large the batteries would be and how cheap they were for their capacity. I loosely hand-assembled the drone development kit with the onboard RTK module and double-checked the correct connectors that came for wiring.

Partially assembled black quadcopter with GPS mast, motors and dangling wires on a table among open boxes and an S500 manual

A loose hand-tightened assembly of the drone frame.

At first glance, it seems that there will be minimal soldering work: replacing the XT90 with an XT60, soldering the battery power module to the PDB (the drone's built-in power distribution PCB), and Soldering the LEDs to the BEC (Battery Eliminator Circuit that regulates the voltage to a lower amount for powering LEDs).

That's my update! I'll post minor updates on Discord or new information I find helpful for reference.

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